Lock stop device



June 23, 1936. 'R D mm 2,045,001

LOCK STOP DEVICE Filed May 8', 1951 Patented June 23, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 16 Claims.

This invention relates to a device which may be co-operatively arranged with any shaft carried arm to limit the movement of the latter at variable points in its rotative travel whether such travel is effected manually or by automatic means and particularly relates to a device of this general character well adapted to co-operate with the spring winding and time setting operating handle of a timing device, analogous for instance, to the handle numbered as part 44 in my U. S. Patent Number 1,929,455, issued October 10, 1933, and with various other spring winding or time setting handles of similar types of mechanism in my pending applications and issued United States patents.

The present improvements have useful application to any rotary device which it may be desired to conveniently establish in selective, locked positions in a manner to be readily adjusted to a different locked position or if preferred to an unlocked position.

Consequently I have deemed it unnecessary to disclose any of the many kinds of associated mechanism to which the invention will have useful application other than a simple operating handle whose movement may be checked.

In the drawing, Fig. 1, shows such an operating handle in operative assembly with a lock stop lever constructed to illustrate the principles of the present invention and in association with a notched dial marked to indicate any significance of the different possible settings of the lock stop lever.

Fig. 2 shows a horizontal sectional view taken in part on the plane 22 in Fig. 1 and showing the operating handle as it would appear if horizontally aligned instead of vertically aligned as it actually is in Fig. 1.

Referring to the above figures of the drawing, I0 indicates the wall of any casing or panel which may support or merely fall in front of the frame plate II of some mechanism which may operate or be operated by the shaft I2 carrying the operating handle I3 retained against a shoulder portion I4 of such shaft by the screw I5, on a slabbed extremity of the shaft.

Shaft I2 may be journaled in the sleeve or bushing I6 projecting at both sides of the plate I I and exteriorly threaded to take the rear retaining nut I! and the front retaining nut I8, the latter of which may clamp against the front surface of plate II a circular metallic disc or dial I9 with spaced notches cut radially into said dial from its periphery.

The sleeve I6 being thus held in rigid relation to the plate I I, projects forwardly to afford a stationary bearing for what I term a lock stop lever 2| which may be made by blanking a suitably shaped piece from sheet metal to form a pointer portion 22 and an operating portion 23 at diametrically o-pposite sides of the sleeve I6 on which it is free to swivel being separated preferably from the stationary retaining nut I8 by a loose thrust washer 24 and being pressed against said thrust washer 24 by a leaf spring member 25 which itself is held to an adjustable tension against the lock stop lever 2| by two more retaining nuts 26 and 21 which also act relative to each other as lock nuts when sufficiently tightened and thereby made rigid with the sleeve I6.

I preferably give the leaf spring member 25 a greater radial extent to the point where it bears upon the pointer portion 22 of lever 2| than is given to same where it bears upon the operating portion 23 and so shape the spring 25 that the net result of its tension against the lever 2| is to force the pointer portion 22 of same rearwardly and against the dial I9 or at least into such position that a projecting tongue 28 which forms part of an up-turned fin portion 29 of lever 2| will tend to engage the notches 20 of the dial I9.

'I may then provide the operating portion 23 at its extremity with a button member 30 secured by a screw 3| to make this end of the lever 2| easily pushed in toward the dial I9 by the finger of an operators hand to lift the tongue 28 out of any notch 20 of the dial I9 against the tension of spring 25, after which while continuing to hold the button 30 so depressed, the lever 2| as a whole can be rotatively shifted to any other desired notch and when in register with that notch and released by the operators hand will be tilted by the spring 25 from its broken line position in Fig. 2 to its full line position and thereby -automatically lock itself in the notch thereby becoming r0- tatively fixed to act as a stop in the path of handle I3.

It will be observed that only the pointer end of handle I3 can engage with the fin 29 of lever 2| and that the opposite or heel side of handle I3 will clear said fin. It will also be noted that no part of the operating end 23 nor the button 3|! can interfere with any portion of the handle I3 so that the fin 29 comprises the sole means of interference of lever 2| with the handle I3.

I have shown in Fig. 1 broken line positions of the handle I3 to represent the position of same when it is abutting against the fin 29 and also when it is displaced degrees from this position to demonstrate that even though the offset bend in the operating portion 23 of lever 2| be sufficient to bring it into the plane of the pointer end of handle l3 so as to interfere with same, there is still left to the handle I3 a half circle of possible travel which is desirable in certain applications of my invention where the possible great thickness of wall If! would necessitate a considerable amount of forward offset in the lever portion 23. The shape in which said portion 23 is blanked further contributes to this resultant freedom of interference with handle I3 to enable the latter to have unrestricted travel for at least a half circle of movement and upon suitably slight offset,

in lever 2| a full circle of possible movement.

The spring 25 may preferably be given a tongue engagement 26 with a hole in the lever 2| to cause the spring to swivel in unison with th lever.

Dots or other forms of graduations 32 may be designated by numerals 33 or other forms of indices to register with pointer 22 when the tongue 28 is seated in a notch and such graduations need not be in alignment with the notches to which they correspond. The angular displacement of point 22 from fin 29 renders easier the reading of the time setting.

Pointing out some of the particular advantages given by the arrangement and formation of parts illustrated in the above described construction it will be seen that the press-turn method of operating lever 2| is convenient not only for the reason that the force required to overcome spring 25 is easy to apply by the leverage afforded and the direction in which the parts move but also because the hand of the operator in exerting this force for manipulating the lever is remote from and therefore gives a clear view of the graduation marks and their indices which the operator needs clearly to observe for a quick and accurate adjustment of the setting of the tongue 28 in any desired notch on the dial. Obviously such would not be the case if the lever 2| had to be grasped at its fin portion 29 by the hand of the operator and it would be comparatively difiicult to remove the tongue 28 from a dial notch by a pulling action aside from the difficulty the operator would have in clearly seeing what he is doing and particularly where the parts are made small in comparison with the size of the operators hand, and it is desirable that the indices 32 be located radially inwardly of the dial notches 20.

Other advantages are that although the button falls slightly outside the circumference of the opening 34 in the wall IE! for the purpose of not interfering with handle l3, this nevertheless, does not preclude the ready withdrawal of all the parts which are carried by the frame plate I rearwardly and through said opening 34 for dismounting of the entire device of which frame plate II is a part from the wall such as I0 of a cabinet or panel.

While I have described the lever 2| as a rigid member capable of looking with and unlocking from the notches 20 without flexure but by tilting as a rigid unit upon washer 24 as a fulcrum, I may make this lever of sufiiciently thin and springy material to exert its own tendency to seat in the dial notches for eliminating the spring 25. Such construction, however, would be relatively undesirable where maximum ruggedness is needed and it is to the result of ruggedness, simplicity and compactness that the present improvements are in part directed.

Other modifications will occur to those skilled in the art and I therefore intend the following claims to cover equivalent ways of making use of the novel principles herein disclosed which would suggest themselves in the face of this disclosure.

I claim:

1. In combination, a circular plate, notches extending radially inwardly from the edge of said plate, setting indices arranged in a smaller circle than the circle of said notches, a member pivoted to rotatively sweep one surface of said plate, a projection carried by said member in a position to engage said notches, and means to retract said projection for shifting said member to different notches, said member being shaped and disposed to indicate and expose the index that quantitatively designates the notch engaged by said projection.

2. A look stop lever device including in combination with a frame plate, a stationary bushing rigidly secured to said plate, a stop member pivoted to rotate about said bushing, an operating handle, and a shaft carrying said handle and journaled within said bushing to transmit the action of said handle to the opposite side of said frame plate.

3. A lock stop lever for mechanical engagement with a notched dial and comprising in combination with graduation marks on said dial a pointer portion of said lever, and a tongue portion of said lever circumferentially displaced from said pointer portion whereby the dial graduation which is in register with said pointer portion may be unobstructed to the view of the operator by said tongue portion.

4. A look stop device comprising in combination, a tube-like bearing structure, a member constrained on the exterior of said structure to be both rotatable and tiltable so that said structure serves as pivot and as fulcrum for said member, a shaft extending thru said bearing structure and having means thereon whereby said shaft is adapted to be limited in rotative movement by engagement of said means with said member and freely rotatable otherwise in said bearing structure, and means arranged to be engaged by said member to prevent the rotation thereof when said member is tilted in one direction and to be cleared by said member for permitting the rotation thereof when said member is tilted in the opposite direction.

5. In combination, the wall of a mounting panel having an opening therein, a mechanism including a frame plate of greater area than said opening and whose front face is designed to be mounted in juxtaposition to the rear surface of said wall, an operating shaft extending through said plate and carrying a rotatable arm at the front of said plate, and a lock stop device mounted between said arm and said plate, a part of which is formed to intercept said arm and a part of which is of greater radial extent than said arm to facilitate manipulation of said device without interference bysaid arm, but of suflioiently small radial extent to be insertable through said opening in said wall.

6. In combination, an adjustable stop member, an operating handle pivoted co-axially with said member and shaped with a wing at one side of its pivot formed to be obstructed by said member and with a wing at the other side of its pivot formed freely to pass said member whereby said handle may be grasped by both its said wing portions for operating but shall be stopped by said member when only one of said wing portions engages the latter thereby permitting a rotative travel of the handle to an extent of substantially a full turn while grasped for operating at both sides of its pivot.

'7. A construction for selectively varying the point on a circle at which the rotation of a shaft shall be stopped, embodying in combination with said shaft, a bearing structure surrounding the same and from one end of which said shaft protrudes, a stop lever adapted to be shifted in its rotative position and pivoted concentrically with said shaft, means whereby said stop lever may be locked in selective positions, means whereby said stop lever may intercept said shaft, said stop lever being constrained by and separated from said shaft by said bearing structure.

8. In combination, a frame plate having a hole, an exteriorly threaded bushing extending through the hole in said plate and projecting to the rear and to the front of said plate, a nut on said bushing to clamp against the rear face of said plate, another nut on said bushing to clamp against the front face of said plate, a third nut at the forward end of said bushing, a lever rotatable and tiltable on said bushing and constrained against the latter of said two nuts by said third nut, and a leaf spring interposed between said third nut and said second nut for tilting said lever in one direction While permitting its yielding from said position and while permitting its rotative adjustment in both directions to selective settings.

9. A look stop device comprising in combination with a circularly arranged series of obstructions and a circularly arranged series of setting indices, a pivoted lever device extending from its pivot to engage with said obstructions at one circumferential point of said lever device, extending at a different circumferential point to register with said indices, and having a handle at a still different circumferential point to provide a means for manipulating the said lever thereby to disengage it from said obstructions without the hand of the operator obscuring the view of the index in register with which said lever device is being set.

10. Adjustable stop means for limiting the time setting movement of a winding handle embodying in combination, a time dial marked with setting indices, notches in the edge of said dial circumferentially exterior to said indices and separated circumferentially from the respective indices which designate the time limiting function of said notches, and a tiltable member adapted to engage with selective ones of said notches and formed with a star point to expose and register with its corresponding and circumferentially separated index, and also to lie in the path of said winding handle to act as a stop therefor for selectively predetermining a period of action of a mechanism operated by said handle.

11. A lever structure for sweeping into locking engagement with a circular series of notches arranged around the pivot of said lever, embodying a flat portion stamped from sheet metal and provided with a pivotal bearing hole whereby said lever may both swing rotatively and tilt upon its pivotal axis and an upstanding fin portion formed by bending the metal of said lever, said fin portion carrying a downwardly projecting locking tongue composed of the same metal as said lever, and formed by the shape of the blanked form of said lever before said lever is bent.

12. A combined fulcrum and pivot providing structure consisting in the combination of a frame plate, an externally threaded tubular bushing penetrating and projecting at the rear and at the front sides of said frame plate, a nut engaging said bushing at the rear of said plate and a nut engaging said bushing at the front of said plate to hold said bushing in said plate, two additional lock nuts engaging said bushing and spaced from the said nut in front of said plate, thereby to provide an adjustable fulcrum and pivot space between said holding nut at the front of said plate and said two lock nuts.

13. Adjustable means for stopping a rotary device in a pre-selected rotative position embodying in combination with said device, a device frame, a shaft and arm carried by said frame, a fixed structure projecting from said frame including a bearing for said shaft, and a lever movably mounted on said structure in a manner to permit turning of said lever about the axis of said shaft and also to permit limited movement of said lever in the plane of said axis and having a portion adapted to lie in the path of said arm, and means to lock said lever against rotative movement.

14. In combination with a time setting rotor including an operating handle, an adjustable stop lever for limiting rotative movement of said rotor and having a portion disposed to be engaged thereby and rotatably adjustable to various settings and mounted to be tiltable in a plane parallel to its axis of rotation, a series of stationary obstructions located at the opposite side of said stop lever from said operating handle and so disposed that said lever by its tilting movement may lock and unlock therewith in various settings, resilient means biasing said member toward positions for looking with said obstructions, and. means independent of said rotor to support and constrain said stop lever for rotative and tilting movement.

15. In combination with an element adapted to rotate about an axis, mechanism for selectively determining the point on a circle at which said element shall be stopped including a member having a portion disposed in the path of rotation of said element to act as a stop therefor, means independent of said element and constructed to support said member so that the latter may be adjustably turned about the axis of said element, and locking obstructions to prevent rotative movement of said member, said support means being further constructed to permit said member to be tilted in the plane of said axis and with respect to said means and thereby to release said member from said obstructions, the said locking obstructions together with said support means being fixed and stationary thereby to determined selective absolute positions in which said member shall stop said element.

16. In combination, a rotor having an operating handle, adjustable stop means for limiting the movement of said rotor to predetermined absolute positions including a stop lever rotatably adjustable about the axis of said rotor and tiltable in the plane of said axis, fixed and stationary obstructions arranged to be engaged by said stop lever to lock the latter against rotative movement, a spring urging said stop lever into locking engagement with said obstructions, and a support constructed to carry and constrain said stop lever for rotative and tilting movement, said support being in fixed and rigid relation to said obstructions and arranged to separate the rotor from the stop lever.

RAYMOND D. SMITH. 

